Job overview

An opportunity has arisen for a motivated and enthusiastic pharmacy technician to join the Pharmacy Clinical Governance & Quality Assurance (QA) teams based at Scarborough Hospital.

The Clinical Governance Team ensures the safe and effective management of medicines throughout the Trust by monitoring practice in medicines management to ensure policies and procedures are implemented effectively. They produce and deliver education and training that promotes compliance with medicines management processes and improves patient safety.

The Quality Assurance team ensures the quality of pharmacy services is effectively monitored and continually improves. In this role you will:

• Help implement and maintain all aspects of the pharmacy quality management system.
• Monitor, test and maintain assets, such as the Trust fridge temperature monitoring systems.
• Monitor the safe use of medical gases throughout the Trust. You will write and review quality reports and participate in departmental quality meetings for the Safe & Secure Handling of Medicines, Aseptics and controlled drugs.
• Demonstrate excellent written and verbal communication skills, be well organised and able to work both independently and as part of a multidisciplinary team.

This post is a Band 5 position but we also welcome applications for a developmental Band 4-5 run-through position from Pharmacy Technicians registered within the last year or who will shortly be registered. This will be discussed at interview.

Main duties of the job

The post holder is responsible for QA and governance in pharmacy and the wider organisation. You will ensure compliance with legislation and medicines management standards.  Other tasks include:

• Document control & management of deviations
• Unlicensed medicines
• Internal audits & actions
• Risk assessments
• Undertaking controlled drug inspections and writing reports and improvement plans
• Investigating discrepancies and unusual usage patterns of medicines

You must have a BTEC/NVQ Level 3 in Pharmacy Services or equivalent and be GPhC registered. Recent experience of working as a pharmacy technician within a hospital environment is essential.

Experience of working in governance or QA would be helpful but not essential. You must be a qualified accredited checking technician (ACPT) or be willing to work towards this.

You must have good communication and interpersonal skills, be able to problem solve, have good attention to detail and able to manage your own time effectively. The ability to respond quickly to variations and problems as they arise is also necessary. 

You will be based in the pharmacy department at Scarborough Hospital but may be required to work at other Trust sites on occasion. Core service hours are Monday to Friday 09:00 –17:30. You will contribute to the weekend (1 in 6 weekends) and bank holiday rota (1 per 
year).

You will have a regular dispensary slot where you will dispense or conduct final accuracy checks as part of the ACPT led dispensary service

Working for our organisation

Our benefits

We offer a range of benefits to support our staff including:

• Access to the NHS Pension Scheme, providing generous benefits upon retirement, as well as a lump sum and pension for dependants
• 27 days holiday rising to 33 days (depending on NHS Trust service)
• A generous relocation package of up to 30% of salary (capped at £18k) to support with relocation expenses for hard to fill positions where relocation would be an expectation to undertake the role fully.  If you would like to discuss a potential relocation package, please speak to the recruiting department/manager at interview stage.
• A variety of different types of paid and unpaid leave covering emergency and planned leave
• Confidential advice and support on personal, work, family and relationship issues, 24/7, from our Employee Assistance Programme
• NHS Car Lease scheme and Cycle to Work scheme
• An extensive range of learning and development opportunities
• Discounts on restaurants, getaways, shopping, motoring, cinema and finance from a range of providers

For further information on the fantastic range of benefits we offer please visit the Trust's dedicated Staff Benefits pages.